A Newbie’s Guide To
Competitive Corporate Research
We all know that corporate espionage is both immoral and illegal in all corners of the globe. But it’s not wrong to learn more about your competitors through public knowledge. One of the ways that you can grow your business is to find out more about what your competitors are doing.
After all, how can you offer something unique to the market if you don’t know what is and isn’t unique?
Research Corporate Profiles
It’s often easy to drown in a wealth of information about your competitors. You are only after some specific information, not a vast dossier of data. That’s why it’s important to determine where is the best place to start looking for information.
In most cases, you should first start by researching corporate profiles of your competitors. Websites like Yahoo! Finance provide a wealth of profile data on most corporations. It’s at sites like those that your journey should begin.
Browse Their Websites
One of the best ways to find out more about a company is to visit their website. In some cases, you might not find out much. But, in others, spending some time on their sites will prove invaluable.
Most corporate websites will give you background history of the companies, who runs them and what they sell. A few will even boast the names of their biggest clients. If you’re trying to establish yourself in a new market, this is an excellent way to find out which big name brands you can target.
It’s worth keeping a note of the website URLs as companies often refresh or change pages on their sites. That way, you can access cached versions on Google or the Wayback Machine.
Pay For A Company Search
So, you now know who runs your competitors’ companies and what they sell. The next question you might want to answer is how much money do they make. Knowing your competitors’ turnover is useful for many reasons:
First, it can help you determine whether a particular niche is profitable or not. Second, you’ll know what financial shape the other companies are in. And, third, it can help you to better position yourself in the market.
The easiest way to find out that information is by paying for a company search. In return, you get sent some documents that detail their financial affairs. By law, companies must submit copies of their accounts to the government each year. It’s that information you’re purchasing.
Look For Media Coverage
If you want to sell better products than your competitors, you need to scrutinize what they sell. One way of doing so is to search for media reports. Quite often you will find both good and bad media stories on your competitors and their products.
Gather this information and collate it in one place for further research. Now you are armed with the tools to find out more about what your competitors get up to.
